Travel Archives - Exhibition On Screen

What a few weeks we have had… it never stops but that’s fine by me!

Posted on July 13, 2022July 14, 2022 by Megan Poole

APOLOGIES! I have been so busy editing my Edward Hopper film I forgot to post this blog from May! I hope everyone is enjoying their summer – it is scorching in Europe but we’re indoors in the edit suite anyway. All goes well. Hopper will be finished by September – and also we will be returning with our popular Painting of the Week podcast soon. Take care, Phil

I have recently returned from Boston having concluded the final shoot for the next EXHIBITION ON SCREEN film which focusses on Edward Hopper. I have to say it was a tremendously busy week that went to plan. I will talk about the shoot shortly but, first, I have to say the past few weeks have been fantastic. I don’t like to play things down when good things happen. One needs to enjoy them and enjoy talking about them. Why not? There are plenty of day-to-day struggles, so we need to recognise and celebrate some of the great moments we all work so hard for.

Let me begin with My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan being accepted into a lot of festivals. One cannot possibly attend all of them but when I received an invitation to go to Kathmandu and have a special screening at Film South Asia, well, that really was too good an invite to turn down. I’m always busy and it’s expensive to get there (and I have reduced the amount that I fly these days) but Kathmandu has a special place in my heart. In 1984, 38 years ago, I went there with my brother and partially filmed my very first film about the Dalai Lama. It was a fantastic trip. Then in 1991 it was the first location that my wife Amanda and I went to as a team working for our company Seventh Art Productions. I had moved out of London (having split from my previous excellent producer Michael Whiteley) and we started working together in the back bedroom of our small new flat in Brighton. We decided that the first film we wanted to make at that point was about Nepal and its first democratic election.

That 1991 trip to Nepal was particularly memorable trip because I was providing news footage back to a couple of UK-based news agencies. One asked me to present on camera and the experience of that alone convinced me that it was something I wouldn’t do again. Nor did I ever again want to file news footage where you are running around looking for trouble spots, going to hospitals for people who might have been injured at a polling station even if, as was the case in Kathmandu that day, that was frankly a distortion of the story. Basically, the democratic elections passed off almost entirely peacefully, but the news agencies were only interested in (and willing to pay for) conflict. One funny thing did happen on that trip – the ruling party officials, including the prime minister, just assumed I was BBC. I did not dissuade them of that belief. I got interviews as a result – but I don’t think the BBC reporter (Mark Tully) was thrilled when he turned up…!

Anyway, back to 2022. On this trip back to the festival, my brother was able to fly in from the US, and Amanda could come too, and my son who is the age I was when I first went, camera in hand.

Kathmandu is extraordinary – and we had the best time. Unfortunately, its own excessive traffic and lack of will power to do much about it puts it in a completely unsustainable long-term position, but it’s still a wonderful place to go. What landscapes to explore, what lovely people, what an exciting place. The film was very well received at the festival too – which made it even nicer.

We cut the travel times very fine – and could not afford any delays if we were to get back in time for the first of two BAFTA awards ceremonies that we’d been invited to. The first was in BAFTA Crafts where my and Shoaib’s cinematography was up for an award. Needless to say, on arrival at Kathmandu airport, we were told there would indeed be a two-hour delay and we would possibly not make our connecting flight in Qatar. Well, a shout-out here to British Airways who waited for us at the gate on arrival and sped us through… onto the flight back to London where we had to go straight home to change from hiking gear into our fancy stuff and rush up to London for the ceremony.

We didn’t win but I genuinely feel honoured and delighted to have received a nomination: that alone allows you to put the BAFTA mask on the poster which hopefully will drive some people to go see the film or buy it from our website. To be nominated in both Best Cinematography and also Best Single Documentary is superb and I think they are actually the two best awards to be nominated for because those are the two things that I think will actually encourage people to watch the film.

Soon thereafter Amanda and I were deep into preparing for the 3rd and final Hopper shoot in Boston, Cape Cod and New England. As with any film, so much of it is in the preparation, preparing and organising your interviews, arranging the interview locations, choosing the exact location shots you need, etc. I’ve done this hundreds of times and you must think it all through, in advance, minute by minute: where am I going to be, what am I trying to achieve, where am I going next? It’s complicated and why I’m very fortunate to be working on this occasion with an excellent co-production team out of Washington DC: Michael and Cynthia Cascio.

Between us I think we had the call sheet very well organised but, before catching the flight to Boston, there was a small matter of the second BAFTA. This was a much bigger affair being held at the Royal Festival Hall. I won’t tell you how much tickets cost to attend the BAFTAs. An insane amount. Nominees do not automatically get free tickets. I’ve been offered less by small TV stations to licence my films than these tickets cost, so enormous gratitude is due to ITV, our UK broadcaster, for inviting me on their behalf – and not only me but all four named nominees for the Best Single Documentary award namely myself, Amanda (co-producer), Shoaib Sharifi (co-director), & Clive Mattock (editor).

There are three previous films of mine that were voted for by BAFTA members as one of the top four films of that year, namely Muhammad Ali – In the Eyes of The World, The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan and In Search of Beethoven. The four films voted for by the members are then put to a jury, but at that point the broadcasters (BBC, ITV, channel 4, 5 and Sky) can resubmit a film that they feel has been overlooked. Thus, the jury gets to watch around nine films to then choose four as official nominations and of course one of those is chosen as the winner. On those three previous occasions we did not even get a nomination – partly I feel as jury members (from the main broadcasters) really were not comfortable with single filmmakers out there with the new small, cheaper cameras. But almost no-one thinks like that anymore so My Childhood, My Country had a better chance this time – but still no guarantee. So, we were absolutely thrilled to have been nominated.

As an aside, I must be honest and say I think that it should just be based on the members’ votes alone but, anyway, it was super that this year that we received those two nominations for Cinematography and Best Single Documentary.

It is very unlikely that an EXHIBITION ON SCREEN film would be nominated as the BAFTAs, as far as documentaries go, really focus on social docs or natural history. So, with the thought that this may never happen again, we therefore decided to take the entire office. BAFTA kindly agreed to supply more affordable tickets if my colleagues didn’t attend the gala dinner (they were eventually much happier at a nearby Italian), but the ceremony and the after-dinner party were OK.

So, on a beautiful sunny Sunday, all 17 of us (my two children came too as they had grown up with this production) found ourselves standing on the red carpet, in front of the BAFTA backdrop, having our official portrait photograph taken. Everyone looking gorgeous. The ceremony itself is 4 hours long (2 hours too long frankly) and begins around 3:30pm. At 6pm the BBC start showing the ceremony on TV having made cuts along the way. Our award came up about 4^th and I was 100% sure it was going to another film (a very good film on Grenfell which is both very moving and very well made). So, when the presenter opened the envelope, I was genuinely expecting her words to be ‘And the award goes to Grenfell…’. So, imagine the shock and horror and happiness all the same time when the words that came out were: ‘And the award goes to ‘My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan’. All the nominees have cameras pointing at us and so ours caught Shoaib jumping up in delight and Amanda, Clive and I looking stunned. My first memory thereafter is the noise my team were making from their seats! We made our way to the stage and en route I prepared myself to make a short speech. Only two days before the Taliban had seemingly announced that all Afghan women now had to wear a burka outdoors; they could barely leave their houses without being completely covered – a completely illogical, retrograde and disgusting decision. I then found myself standing in front of hundreds of the leading lights of television actors, actresses, commissioning editors, producers, etc. And half of whom were women. I was able to make a short speech to point out that most of my company are women, that the four commissioning editors that helped my project from the start were women, but in Afghanistan today women simply can’t leave the house and they certainly can’t work in television, so I requested that commissioning editors & film makers in the audience please don’t forget Afghanistan. I can’t tell you the numerous times over the past 20 years that broadcasters nationally and internationally have said to me that they were not interested in the film because they believed their audience was tired of Afghanistan. I don’t understand how with 160,000 Afghans having died, 3600 international military service people having died and $2.3 trillion spent, how can you not be interested? My film is also a universal story about youth.

Single Documentary – Phil Grabsky, Shoaib Sharifi, Amanda Wilkie, Clive Mattock, winners of the Single Documentary Award for My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years In Afghanistan

Amanda Wilkie, Clive Mattock, Shoaib Sharifi, Phil Grabsky, winners of the Single Documentary Award for My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan

After the speech, we then went backstage where, after being photographed by about 40 press photographers, we were delighted to discover that we didn’t just receive one BAFTA trophy but four, one each. I was so happy that all four of us could now try to find some space for what is a very heavy & impressive trophy. In our case, two of them. My only disappointment is with the BBC who decided that they would rather keep some of the frankly rather weak elements of the BAFTA show, rather than give any time to best single, best news, best documentary series, best live event. All of these went to the end of the TV programme in a rapid sum up under ‘other awards’. So, my speech never made it. It’s appalling really – this default to celebrity vacuity in place of a little bit of respect for docs and news. They would argue that they are responding to the audience – I think that’s rubbish and, anyway, you can work to create an audience. The BBC putting it at the end is creating the sense that docs & real life are simply not as important. So that is my one gripe of the day.

Anyway, the speech did make it to You Tube and Twitter where it has been seen by many thousands of viewers, but how much more powerful it would have been on the BBC.

Anyways, after the ceremony was over… we had the gala dinner and, much more importantly, the after-dinner disco which went on for 4 hours – and we danced every minute of it! I didn’t dare put my trophy down, so I had a sore arm for days…. I had an absolute ball, and we were literally the last people to leave at 2.30am. We got to bed at 3.30am only to be up again at 5:30am to make our way to Heathrow airport to fly to Boston for the afore-mentioned Hopper shoot.

I didn’t manage to sleep on the plane – I was still too excited at the BAFTA and nervous about the week’s shoot ahead. We had to go now as any later and New England becomes too busy. It was great that Amanda could come too (as she always used to, before kids) and, in short, we had a very successful and enjoyable week of travelling and filming. All the interviewees were tremendous (and tremendously helpful) and all the locations stimulating to film. I can certainly see the appeal this area had to Edward Hopper. It was very hard work trying to keep on top of every moment, making sure to not miss anything but in short it all went to plan.

Now we are editing what I believe will be a very strong film about a genuine American master. There are many pros and cons to running your own company – self-funding your own films, producing your own films, distributing your own films. It is hard, and finance is always a challenge, but what a benefit it is to choose which projects to work on, which festivals to attend, and all with wonderful, smart, loyal colleagues with whom, from time to time, you win a big award and have a fine ol’ party. Our films entertain and they educate to an extremely appreciative audience. Over these past few weeks, we’ve also finished two new Exhibition on Screen films – one with the exemplary Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (about Camille Pissarro) and the second, a fabulous biography of Mary Cassatt, perhaps a somewhat overlooked member of the impressionist group but one with her own voice which was significant and very impactful.

What a few weeks we have had. Even covid has been put to the back of our minds a little (though I still wear my mask on trains and planes) and for now it is all things Hopper – and, come September, our limited cinema release of MY CHILDHOOD, MY COUNTRY – with a special update and Q&A. It never stops but that’s fine by me!

Focus on the many positives that it brings

Posted on July 1, 2019February 22, 2022 by Megan Poole

It would be easy to focus on the difficulties involved in making feature films but issues of finance, lack of time, finding the right path creatively, non-payment of monies owed to you, maintaining key relationships, these are nothing new to artists through the ages. If you want to understand Mozart or Beethoven then you need to understand how they coped with all five of those factors. Indeed it’s true of every artist we have featured in our 23 EXHIBITION ON SCREEN films that we have made so far. But the key, the absolute key, is to keep making art and to focus on the many positives that it brings. The past few months have been extremely busy and challenging for us in all sorts of ways but what I carry with me, what I choose to focus on, is the many extraordinary moments I’ve had in galleries, on shoots, in the edit suite and at screenings. So here are five recent moments that come to mind:

06 Phil Grabsky at the Fitzwilliam Museum © David Bickerstaff.jpg

1 – I have been thrilled by the artworks that making EASTER IN ART has led to me to look at, some for the very first time. I’ll be honest: religious art of this type is not where I would normally gravitate to but, my word, if you do stop to look at the art that has been made to reflect those final few days of Christ’s life it is utterly staggering. Our teams have been filming all over the world – it is surely the most painted moment in history – and the film will be absolutely full of masterpieces by the greatest of artists and some of the lesser known. So many stand out already but if I was put on the spot to mention one that I had really never even noticed before it would be Dali’s Crucifixion at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

2 – It was a thrill to have YOUNG PICASSO play at both the Málaga and Barcelona film festivals. I must have done about 20 interviews for TV, radio and press – some even in Spanish (thank you Channel 4 for paying for me to learn Spanish 30 years ago). The standard of questions was very high – they had all done their research and of course watched the film. I was worried that they would be critical of a non-Spaniard making a film about Picasso – but not at all. In fact, they all were delighted with our decision to make a film about him and, moreover, focus on his early years. I am quite careful with how many festivals I enter as they are very time consuming and can eat into your local audience rather than build it up. On the other hand, I do love attending festivals and seeing other films and meeting some film-makers. As ever, there simply isn’t enough time to do everything. The main thing was that in both cities – so closely associated with Picasso – the film was received really well – not one word of criticism from anyone. Sadly there was a hastily organised general election on the first day the film was released to Spanish cinemas which hurt us badly. But the distributors intend to repeat the film soon.

03 Sunflowers and 5 screen installation © David Bickerstaff.jpg

3 – We have recently finished a special commission for the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. There are 5 paintings on display around the world of Van Gogh’s sunflowers in vases. These are in Amsterdam itself, then Philadelphia, Tokyo, Munich and London. They rarely travel and are never seen together. Until now. We filmed each of them and created an installation of 5 vertical screens showing the paintings alongside one another. This has just gone on display at a fascinating new exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum focussed on the recent conservation of their sunflowers in a vase painting. We are now in the process of making a film about these paintings and indeed the sunflowers and its history through art for Season 8 of EXHIBITION ON SCREEN. We have already filmed some wonderful interviews and new scientific discoveries. Watch the film if you want to see how the paintings looked when they were first painted. You’ll be amazed.

4 – Russia is quite frankly a pain to get to. It’s the most complicated visa process (and not cheap) but once you’ve arrived in a city like St. Petersburg, you can put that behind you and begin to enjoy the experience. St. Petersburg is fascinating, somewhat wild and stimulating all at the same time. This is the third time I’ve been and the first time I’ve seen it in the sun (albeit with a chill from nearby Finland at all times). I was filming in the majestic Hermitage – perhaps the biggest art museum in the world – that is really quite extraordinary and, as you’d imagine, full of treasures. We know the gallery well and it is always a pleasure to work with them. This time I was there primarily to film their two Leonardo paintings The Madonna Litta and The Benois Madonna. There is fierce competition to be this museum’s most popular artwork but the Hermitage’s director told me that it remains the Madonna Litta. The attribution to Leonardo is not undisputed but it is certainly a remarkably beautiful painting. We were filming on the day the gallery was shut to the public and thus had all the time we needed to film them which meant I also really got to look very closely. A few special tour groups passed by and what struck me was that no-one looked longer than it took to take a snap on their phones. Crazeee.

5 – Australia and New Zealand have always been firm supporters in our films and I have made a point of visiting cinemas there every year or two. It has become harder of the last few years as we have more competition in the arts area and indeed in the area of Event Cinema more generally but we receive so many emails and Facebook/Instagram comments from both these countries that motivate us to keep delivering new films to ever more cinemas. What I particularly love about both countries – apart from the wonderful landscapes and much more besides – is not just how enthusiastic in person our audiences are but how knowledgeable they are too – the question and answer sessions are always really interesting. It is a long way to go but I can’t wait to return.

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Thanks for reading!

From New York to West Palm Beach and many stops in between…

Posted on April 19, 2018February 1, 2022 by Megan Poole

OK, America, it has to be said that you still don’t know what good coffee is (in hotels at least) nor bacon nor apples (import them from Britain please!) and a barely audible ‘uh-huh’ is not how to respond when someone says ‘thank you’ but there are so many things I love about this wonderful country that I always enjoy my trips here. Luckily some of those things are in the worlds I inhabit on my visits – namely art museums, cinemas and, when I get the time, running. Many countries have great galleries but no country has so many in so many cities…I have just visited a few in New York, Washington, Richmond & West Palm Beach. But that hardly scratches the surface: think LA, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Denver, Toledo, MoMA, Met, LACMA, the Getty and so many more. Yes, it’s largely down to historic economic power that these collections have come to be but that’s no different to anywhere else and no worse than through historic military power which helped create so many of the European collections.

So, a few days in the USA – and visiting as many galleries as I can. Plus a few screenings of both an encore film I, CLAUDE MONET as well as a new release CÉZANNE – PORTRAITS OF A LIFE. Plus a bit of research for a film we have in production which is yet to be announced (stay tuned)! Plus various other meetings… A busy few days indeed. What made it great fun though was the daily visit to a different cinema to introduce a film and then take questions afterwards. I have been visiting American independent cinemas for 15 years and they just get better and better but above all it’s the audiences I like. They are always so enthusiastic, interested and gracious. There are many Americas – just as with any country – and one has to distinguish between the rather two-dimensional America that might be presented on the nightly news from the multi-faceted one you’ll meet for yourself. It’s a huge country and, like English churches, there are way too many cinemas for one person to ever visit in one lifetime, but the response EXHIBITION ON SCREEN has had this week has been fantastic across the board and will keep me coming back. You can’t help but be encouraged by such an enthusiastic response.

The third aspect I really enjoy in the USA, on a personal level, is a simple one: running. On this visit I have run along the Hudson in NY, the C&O canal and Potomac in DC, the James in Richmond, the Atlantic Ocean in West Palm Beach – it’s a great way to explore. But watch out for the police guarding President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach – I am not sure what they thought a sweaty runner could do but they didn’t want to take the risk of finding out, that’s for sure. Despite that, and although ten days is a long time to be out of the office, I look forward to coming back soon!

Vancouver International Film Festival

Posted on October 10, 2017February 1, 2022 by Megan Poole

The last time I checked there were over a thousand film festivals a year – so that’s three a day. No doubt that figure is increasing all the time. So how and why does a filmmaker attend a festival? In my time, I have been to plenty all around the world – all are distinctive for one reason or another, and some are certainly more useful than others as far as distributing one’s new film is concerned. One thing they do share is that they are a great place to see great films that you almost certainly will never otherwise have seen.

I know how hard it is to raise the funds to make decent films so I am always taken aback by how many good films do get made. So, comment no.1 would be if your city has a festival, go every day and see as many films as possible.

As someone who adores documentaries I love going to festivals just to watch films. However, I simply don’t have time so I have to choose really carefully. So, some will go to a festival to try and pick up distribution. Festivals like Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, Cannes are full of new work looking for a home with someone who will bring them to the world. As we distribute our own films, that’s not relevant to me. Plus I’m personally no fan of those hugely busy events where everyone is just a little bit too concerned about how they look and who’s there to notice.

Another reason to enter a festival to present your film for the first time to a paying audience and see what they think. That is certainly one of the reasons I love Vancouver – the crowds are enthusiastic, informed and (it’s that Canadian thing!) very nice! Reason no.3 is to pick up early reviews. This is actually pretty important – you need reviews for the poster, the social media campaign and so on. The one great thing about films is that they get far more reviews than anything you’ll do for TV or digital. Reason no.4 might be to pick up an award. We’ve won plenty and I’ve no idea whether it has made much difference but it’s still nice. Our new Hockney film picked up an Audience Award in its first screening and that was a great boost to us all.

Reason no.5 is festivals can be great fun. Again, Vancouver is my absolute favourite festival partly for that reason – they do everything right and look after us film-makers really well. So, for example, instead of one big dinner for all the filmmakers that can be uncomfortable if you don’t know anyone and no-one has the sense to make introductions, Vancouver does small intimate lunches of 6-8 filmmakers each day. Much better and much more valuable. Reason no.6: it can take you to some great cities – I still regret turning down festivals in Tehran, Kathmandu, Tallinn, Skopje, Busan, Kiev, Doha, and plenty more. On the other hand, I’ve been to plenty of others and had a great time.

But I’ll come back to the reason that I think we all need to remember: there is no better place to see a film than in a cinema. Most of the films I have seen this week in Vancouver have been excellent and, if I had seen them at all, it would almost certainly have been on my laptop. Please, I encourage you to buy my DVDs and download my films BUT the best place to see any film is in the cinema. Yesterday, I watched my own film David Hockney at the RA on a huge gorgeous screen at the VanCity Cinema in Vancouver – the quality of the sound and picture was out of this world.

That was a tough project for various reasons but yesterday all that was forgotten and it brought a tear to my eye.

Art Makes Us indeed.